Sunday, March 19, 2017

MP-35 Grapple

When Inferno was announced in the Masterpiece line , I knew that Grapple wouldn't be far behind. After receiving Inferno, the wait for Grapple became unbearable. For as much as I enjoyed Inferno, Grapple was a character that I seemed to enjoy more, just from his history during season 2. I don't really recall anything that Inferno did, but I sure remember Grapple getting scammed by the Constructicons into building the Solar Power Tower, which puts Grapple over Inferno in my mind, even though Inferno is a firetruck.

Like Inferno (last mention, I promise), Grapple comes with a ton of accessories. Just as I did with Inferno (sorry), I'm only going to discuss and show accessories that I like. Out of the package, Grapple looks just like he did on the show. For some reason, the fact that the crane can extend and move up and down was perhaps the feature that I least expected, especially at this price point. I actually think I spent ten minutes just playing with the crane. I might be 8 years old.

For some reason, there's a shovel attachment, like a cherry picker. It's pretty nifty and now that I think about it, I could totally put Spike or Daniel in the bucket. That's what happens when you take pictures one day and type up the review weeks later. Man, Spike even looks like a phone repair or cable guy. Hindsight.

My favorite attachment has to be the claw. Just seeing it makes me say, in wonder, "The Claw" like I'm a toy alien. I've never been good at the claw game, but with this attachment, I was able to grab something.

I grabbed the freaking Solar Power Tower! I'm not totally enamored with the Solar Power Tower (that's a mouthful) as an accessory, but it is nifty. I've decided to go with the more toy accurate look so I'm only going with the chromed pieces.

Grapple in robot mode? Exquisite. The proportions on this guy are amazing. My Grapple came with both fists attached, but I've always had my Grapple with the chromed wrist barrel attachment, so that's what I'm going with for the Masterpiece version. Wrist barrel attachment? I've always called them missiles. How was I to know? I was 8 when Grapple was released.

I had a lot of fun posing Grapple. This mold just seems to lend itself to more poses than a lot of the previous Masterpiece figures. Or it could be that I've just now started getting posing ideas.

Transforming Grapple is just such a delight. It's just intuitive. Breaking down the crane arm for the first time gave me fits, but subsequent transformations have been easier.

My only quibble with Grapple has to do with the Arc-welder rifle. Mine is a chore for Grapple to hold onto; it's difficult to position the rifle securely. Add in the fact that you can't position the rifle with the hand open all of the way, and it just isn't fun to do. Also, the screaming face will most likely stay on Grapple for a very long time.

The chuckling face seems almost boastful to me. Maybe Grapple is bragging about how he made the Solar Power Tower?

And for no apparent reason, Red Alert joined the party. Yeah, he's more of a friend to red firetruck guy but aren't all Autobots friends?

I tried something different with this photo set, and I'm entirely sure I'm happy with the results. I shot from a much lower angle than before, but I didn't adjust the lighting accordingly. Some of these pictures just seemed washed out to me, and that's all due to lighting. The angles looked pretty good, they're just so badly lit. One day I'll get this right.